Wilson Center Experts

Michael J. Geary

Assistant Professor, Modern Europe and the European Union, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Term:

Sep 01, 2013

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Sep 30, 2015

Michael J. Geary is a (non-residential) Global Fellow with the Wilson Center’s Global Europe program and Assistant Professor of Contemporary Europe and the European Union at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He has held distinguished residential fellowships at the Wilson Center, Fulbright (DC), the College of Europe (Warsaw) and the University of Basel (Switzerland).

He is the author of two books and articles on EU integration, enlargement and EU-US relations. A First Class graduate of the National University of Ireland, he holds a Ph.D. from the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.

His research interests include the European Union, Transatlantic Relations, British-Irish Relations and Comparative European Politics and Government. His Op-Eds have appeared in The National Interest, Euractiv, The Hill’s Congress Blog and he has been quoted in (amongst other publications) the Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, BBC News, and Reuters.

On 19 April 2013, in Brussels, under the auspices of the European Union and EU foreign policy chief Baroness Catherine Ashton, the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo signed “The First Agreement of Principles governing Normalization of Relations.” While there is opposition in both Serbia and Kosovo to the Agreement, it has since been approved by both the parliaments in Belgrade and Prishtina. This information session explores the background to the Agreement and its political implications. more

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In this interview, Global Fellow Michael Geary provides analysis on the surprisingly big win for David Cameron and his party. He discusses the outcome and implications for Scotland and the European Union.

It had been billed as one of the closest election races in modern British politics. What does the result mean for the United Kingdom? And for its relations with Europe and the wider world? Our experts examine the results and assess the domestic and foreign policy challenges facing the Tory government.

On 18 September, Scotland will hold a referendum on its 300 year-old union with the rest of the United Kingdom. It is an historic event with the campaign battle already well under way. The Center’s Global Europe Program will convene several leading experts to discuss the referendum campaign and the wider implications of a ‘Yes’ vote for Edinburgh, London and Europe.

On 10 March, the fourth round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the European Union and the United States began in Brussels. This trade agreement is about more than just reducing tariff barriers; non-tariff barriers including regulatory issues are at TTIP's core. This event focuses attention on the significant regulatory chapter and the challenges and likely obstacles on the path to a successful agreement between the EU and the US.

On March 24 President Obama will travel to Europe for a Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands, followed by a U.S.-EU Summit in Brussels on March 26. Planned agenda items for these meetings, however, are likely to be overtaken by Russia’s accession of Crimea and continuing instability in Ukraine. Wilson Center experts in nuclear security, US-EU relations, and US-Russia relations and Ukraine previewed the President’s trip in a briefing session for media.

The first enlargement was one of the most divisive and politically charged events in the history of the present-day European Union. French opposition to British membership meant that London had to wait more than a decade at the Community's door. Other countries, including Denmark and Ireland, whose requests for membership were tied to the coat-tails of the British applications, had to endure a similar wait. Enlarging the European Union focuses on the early history of the EU and in particular the role played by the European Commission, an institution whose aim was to gain influence over the Community's agenda and to shape its policies, including the issue of enlargement. Enlarging the European Union explores the Commission's interaction with the member states and the applicant countries between the years 1961 and 1973 and also the Commission's attempts to gain and wield influence over the first enlargement round.

On June 19, 2013, Robert Zoellick, former president of the World Bank, former U.S. Trade Representative, and former Deputy Secretary of State gave a global perspective of what the Trans-Pacific Partnership could mean for future trade negotiations followed by a distinguished group of panelists who spoke on the important aspects of a future trade model and how the Trans-Pacific Partnership fits into other regional trade agreements.

On 19 April 2013, in Brussels, under the auspices of the European Union and EU foreign policy chief Baroness Catherine Ashton, the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo signed “The First Agreement of Principles governing Normalization of Relations.” While there is opposition in both Serbia and Kosovo to the Agreement, it has since been approved by both the parliaments in Belgrade and Prishtina. This information session explores the background to the Agreement and its political implications.